The Ground Was Cold
by Dissolution
Summary: A murderer visits a hero's grave with some promises.


Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids. Don't sue me.

The Ground Was Cold 

The ground was cold. A small thing now, but she did notice. A tear dripped down the woman's cheek, but she didn't bother to wipe it away as she sat beside the small mound of dirt, so insignificant to the rest of the world. But to the woman, it was her world. All the world lay in that mound, trapped in it. Why had it had to end this way? Why couldn't they have just been left in peace, to live out their days quietly? It would have been so simple. A life with a small house, perhaps some children in the future. Another tear dripped down the smooth cheek, so pale in the darkening light.

"Fiona."

Another woman's voice calling her name made her turn to see Moonbay stepping into the small clearing, looking haggard. Her dark eyes stared out at the world as if she had lost hope in the goodness of it, silently begging for some sign of charity.

"You shouldn't be out here so long. It's getting dark and you've been here for five hours."

"Moonbay," Fiona replied, trying to keep her voice steady as more tears spilled down her cheeks, "Van is dead. Did you know that? Van is dead. He's right there."

She pointed to the mound, looking at it as if Van could rise from that dirt, grinning and claiming it was all a joke. But nothing stirred, leaving her staring emptily.

"I…I know that, Fiona." Moonbay's voice hitched slightly as if she, too, were holding sobs. She continued carefully, as if the words couldn't be trusted. "But Van wouldn't want you to cry your eyes and life away. Don't you think he'd want you to move on?"

"How do you know what he'd want?" Fiona hissed, suddenly vicious as her red eyes narrowed, her fingers scrabbling in the grass by her sides. "He can't tell you anymore. He's dead! Dead!"

"Yes, but I knew Van." With quick steps, the dark haired girl was by her side, and kneeling to wipe away Fiona's tears. "And I knew how much he loved you. He wouldn't want you to waste away just so you could be placed here beside him."

Fiona stared up at her, looking at the girl that had been such a central part of her life. Perhaps she was right. After all, Van had loved life. Yes, and he'd loved her. He'd told her so, in several of those rare quiet moments when they were alone together. A faint, tremulous smile appeared on the pale lips, barely there, but enough to make Moonbay smile back in relief. Perhaps there was hope after all.

"How touching," sneered a voice that turned Moonbay's stomach into a pit of ice as the owner stepped into the clearing with deliberate strides. "But now is the cue for the damned murderer, I believe."

She whirled as Raven loomed over her, his trademark smirk clear even in the dying light. With the dark pilot suit and black hair, he gave the impression of a disembodied face, floating above her ominously.

"You," she whispered, gathering Fiona to her as she would a little girl, "What do you want?"

"Merely to see my last rival's grave," he replied with a laugh. Moving away from her, he laid a hand on the grave stone, smiling down at it.

"You killed him," Fiona whispered, staring up at the youth who stood so easily beside the grave of her beloved. "You…you killed him."

"What?" He looked up, obviously shook from pleasant thoughts from the smile still on his lips. "Oh, yes, I killed him. I've been wanting to do that for years and I finally did it. Life is so sweet, isn't it?'

"You murderer!" the blonde woman whispered, her half-crazed eyes searching his own face for something only she thought might be there.

"I believe I've already mentioned that, haven't I? Yes, I killed him, and I revel in that." He smiled again down at the grave, reading off the stone tablet at the head. " 'Van Flyheight, cherished fiancée, trusted friend, hero.' Such clichés, don't you think?" He looked up again at them, his washed-out purple eyes mocking their love for the dead man. "He's finally dead, after killing me all those years ago. I never told you what he did to me, did I? He destroyed me, in that battle six years ago. He destroyed my Genosaurer, celebrated my death, and traipsed off to go save the people. How do you think it felt, crawling out of that burning metal cage, burnt and torn, and finding my organoid, my other half, lying on death's door? Oh yes, I know how it felt. I hadn't liked Van before that. After…" The man trailed off and smirked into the night, his eyes seeing something only he could see. "I swore to kill him, you all know that. Even when battling the Deathsaurer, I still felt that same hatred."

"But you still battled _with_ him!" Moonbay whispered, the wind taking her words away as they slipped from her lips. "You respected him, you said it!"

"It's possible to hate while still respecting someone," Raven replied, softly stroking the grave stone. "You should try it some time, it's rather refreshing after just hatred. And if I fought with him, it was only because he was my target, not Hiltz's, not Prozen's, mine. And I finally achieved that goal." He sighed happily. "Yes, Van's dead, and I'm alive. The only thing that marrs my happiness is you alive."

A slight frown twisted the man's face as he stared down at him, the strange eyes more puzzled than anything.

"Yes, you're alive, and I'm not quite sure why. It would have been fun to see Van's agony while his friends died, wouldn't it?" A sudden grin changed the bemused eyes into the slits of a predator, their macabre gleam making Moonbay shudder. "But don't worry, you'll be dead soon, you won't have to wait. Then you can be put into the ground next to him."

Clasped in Moonbay's arms, Fiona gave a faint moan, causing Raven to grin and crouch down beside them, caressing the red-eyed woman's pale cheek with one gloved hand. "Yes, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" he murmured. "Don't think I haven't forgotten about you, wench. You're the one that egged Van on when he killed me, weren't you? I could hear you, above Shadow's screams. But you didn't hear those, did you? No, you were too busy talking to Flyheight and he's dead now."

Moonbay glared at the man and half dragged, half lifted the blonde woman so that she was behind the darker woman, out of Raven's way.

"And you," he whispered, sneering into her dark eyes. "You were one of Van's friends. One of his best friends, one of those that are always there for him. I still remember when you got in the way of Van and my Charged Particle Cannon."

A pause, long enough for Moonbay to shiver.

"You have annoyed me for too long."

Moonbay stared back into the purple eyes, so obviously amused at her petrified manner. What was there to be afraid of? He was just one man, one man alone… and he had killed Van.

"But I have wasted enough time here," he said abruptly, startling her as he stood suddenly, towering over her crouching form. "I still have business that needs to be attended to tonight. But don't worry, I won't forget you. I'll even visit your graves, how about that? Something to distract you from that cold ground that's pressing in around you." His smile was just a baring of teeth, so bright against the dark hair. "And just in case you forget about me…"

He bent down and placed something long and black into Fiona's palm as she stared up at him, horrified fear vying with hopelessness in the crimson eyes. He smiled into them, as gently and inexorably as snow piling around, blocking air and light.

"Until next time."

"Moonbay!" Another male voice, so different from Raven's, was calling out for them, coming closer. "Fiona! Where are you?"

The dark haired woman whirled to see how Raven would take this new development, but he was gone, only the scuffle marks around the gravestone and her feet showing that someone had been there. She stared into the dark trees that surrounded them, listening again for the light voice telling her that she would die.

Irvine broke into the clearing breathless, his gray eye hurriedly scanning the area to make sure the women were all right. Physically, they were fine, but Moonbay looked like she had seen her own death, the normally tan skin turned a pasty gray. He couldn't see Fiona's face, her head bent towards something in her hand.

"Moonbay! Fiona!" He strode towards them, his worry slowly dissolving into a shaky anger. "Were you here this whole time? Why the hell didn't you tell me? What's that you've got, Fiona?"

She finally lifted her head, scarlet eyes huge in a bone-white face. Silently, she held up her palm, the long black object fluttering slightly in the breeze that wrapped itself around them. All three stared at it for a second, the silence stretching until Moonbay spoke.

"A feather. He gave us a feather." She took a great, trembling breath, then smiled crookedly, her eyes half-wild. "A raven's feather."

She snorted, then burst out laughing, the crazed sound echoing around the clearing as she stumbled into Irvine's outstretched arms, her whole body wracked with insane howls.

"Moonbay? Moonbay, what's wrong? What happened?"

He tried to see into her face, but she kept it low, just shaking her head as she continued laughing wildly. He looked over at Fiona, into the eyes that now held a deadened look, the spark that he was used to seeing distinguished by despair.

"Fiona, why are you shivering?" he asked childishly, helplessness seeping into his blue eyes.

"The ground is cold, Irvine," Fiona replied calmly, turning to look at the grave of Van Flyheight. "The ground is very cold."


End file.
